Blakeman’s Back With New Crabtree Proposal

A year and a half after first unveiling his plans to develop a shopping center on Bridgeport Avenue, Monty Blakeman is back before the Planning and Zoning Commission looking to rebuild on the former Crabtree auto dealership site.

He wants to have a grocery store and two retail buildings.

The commission will hold a public hearing Sept. 22 on the application for three buildings on the site where Nells Rock Road and Buddington Road converge at Bridgeport Avenue.

If history is any indication, the hearing will be packed with those who fear the traffic the project will attract will be more than can be handled at the busy intersection.

Many spoke in opposition to the application at the commission’s public hearing in May 2009 — and those who were in favor of it were drowned out.

When they first came out, there were several people who spoke in favor of it but they got shouted down,” said Blakeman’s attorney, Dominick Thomas. One older woman who said she would be happy to see a grocery store there was actually booed, he said. 

That pretty much silenced any other supporters of the project.

The site has been empty since Crabtree closed several years ago. 

Last year Blakeman allowed the Center Stage theater group to use a small area of the building after it was forced to relocate from its Center Street home, but that arrangement is temporary until the group, headed by Fran and Gary Scarpa, finds a permanent home.

There’s no reason to prevent this property from being developed — it has to be used,” Thomas said. And we will be doing substantial improvements to the area.”

The plans for the site remain the same, Thomas said, and include one large 130,000 square foot building that could accomodate a grocery store and two smaller buildings for a variety of retail uses.

This is the third time Blakeman has proposed the development. 

The first time — when the commission held the public hearing — the application was withdrawn because of a dispute over Access Road, the street that runs in front of the former dealership parellel to Bridgeport Avenue. The road is incorporated into the development plans and the project hinges on the ability for Blakeman to purchase it.

Last year members of the Board of Aldermen said they had to allow Blakeman to buy it, but Thomas contended that it was up to the state to sell it. The state Department of Transportation years ago gave the city the property after the construction of Route 8, with the intention that Access Road would be used to expand Bridgeport Avenue.

Since that never happened, the road reverts back to the state, which has the authority to sell it once the city abandons it. That will happen once the approvals are in place, Blakeman said.

Blakeman resubmitted the application earlier this year but then withdrew it again after entering into negotiations with a user for the grocery space. Those negotiations fell through, Thomas said, so they are now going ahead with the approval process while continuing to talk to others interested in leasing the space.

We are now focused on getting the approvals,” he said.

But it’s likely there will again be opposition to the project, especially from those living up Nells Rock and Buddington roads in the several condominium complexes located there.

I think you’re going to see people come out again,” said Nells Rock Road resident Barbara Daniels, who attended the prior public hearing on the application. I’m not opposed to them building on the site, but they have to be responsible and not make it a nightmare for those of us already there.”

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